Jaguar That Defended Itself From Woman Who Wanted Selfie Won’t Be Put Down

On Mar 11, 2019 54

Jennifer_Fox10/Twitter

On Saturday, March 9, it was reported a woman at the Wildlife World Zoo near Phoenix, Arizona, suffered injuries after climbing into an enclosure to take a selfie with a jaguar.

Somewhat understandably, the jaguar didn’t take too kindly to the woman climbing over a number of fences to get into the enclosure, and unfortunately she ended up in rather a lot of pain, with lacerations to her arms.

Thankfully, her injuries are said to be non-life-threatening, though graphic footage of the incident emerged showing the woman on the floor immediately after the attack, with deep wounds on her arms.

GRAPHIC VIDEO: Woman attacked by a jaguar at @ZooWildlife … officials say, the woman crossed over a barrier to get a photo. I’ll have more at 9 and 10.

Without thinking, I had no idea what I was going to see, I just ran over there,

I saw the other girl up against the fence with her arm caught in the jaguar’s claws.

Wildlife World Zoo made the following remarks in a tweeted statement after the event:

Please understand why barriers are put in place. Sending prayers to the family tonight.

They added:

We regret to inform that this evening, before closing there was an incident reported involving a guest, who crossed over the barrier to get a photo, according to eye witnesses.

The visitor sustained non-life threatening injuries to their arm from one of our female jaguars. At the request of the family, paramedics were called. At no time was the animal out of its enclosure. The incident is being fully investigated.

Following their statement, many Twitter users were concerned for the jaguar, which they felt was not out of line and only acting naturally as it responded to the woman entering its space.

Some users even threatened to boycott the zoo if they decided to euthanise the big cat.

Now, however, Wildlife World Zoo has responded, and assured those concerned that the jaguar will not be put down following the incident.

Replying to one person’s message, they wrote:

We can promise you nothing will happen to our jaguar. She’s a wild animal and there were proper barriers in place to keep our guests safe- not a wild animals fault when barriers are crossed.

We can promise you nothing will happen to our jaguar. She’s a wild animal and there were proper barriers in place to keep our guests safe- not a wild animals fault when barriers are crossed. Still sending prayers to her and her family.

Thank you for not euthanizing her. Too many ppl out there who lack common sense & do something this idiotic & then the animal has to be put down, it's sad. I feel for the animal, she must've been scared & confused as to why this human was crossing over into her "territory."

Thank you , thank you … thank you! @ZooWildlife for not even considering the thought of putting down your beautiful Jaguar….👏🏼❤️**Never put an animal down for reacting to a situation that an incompetent human creates! 🐾